Can't start Dolby Audio driver after upgrading to Windows 8.1

Anonymous
2013-10-18T07:27:19+00:00

Lenovo U410 wirh Windows 8 pre-installed.

Upgrade to 8.1 went flawlessly, but every time I re-start or boot up the machine I get this:

I've uninstalled and re-installed Dolby Home Theater, done an extensive local and web search about this.

There appears to be NO mention on my machine anywhere for a Dolby Audio Driver" or anything that uses it.

I've been on the Lenovo forum and there's a thread there that says to disable driver signature, which I've done to no effect.

I still get this message.

Can anyone throw any light on this?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2013-10-28T16:20:59+00:00

Hi Everyone!!

I did something to my laptop and it worked!!! After messing around the fix was simple!

Of course make sure your computer has all the windows updates. I don't know if that's gonna be a contributing factor, but it was part of my methods.

After that go into your "D Drive" which is found under "My computer" --> "Drivers" -->"Audio"

Once you're in the audio folder, you're gonna scroll down, you will see a computer icon that says "setup" click on that. Once you do that you will follow the instructions. It seems by doing this it updates the conextant audio driver. I don't know why it didn't update in the device manager as others have suggested. But after I did this, I checked to make sure it was fixed

You can see if it was fixed by:

Going into your control panel and clicking the Dolby theater which can be found in the sounds, games, etc. --> you should see the actual program pop up instead of the error message!

I am so glad I finally fixed this! If this helps you, please label it as the answer so everyone else can fix theirs too! It seems to be a major issue

Have an "error" free day!

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Anonymous
2014-02-04T00:06:17+00:00

Hi,

Lenovo has updated the Conexant Audio Drivers for Windows 8.1 to correct this error.  You can download the updated drivers for your device at http://support.lenovo.com/en\_US/downloads/default.page.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-10-18T13:35:54+00:00

    OK.

    Open Device Manager. (Right-click on the Start button and choose Device Manager).

    Expand the Sound, Video and Games Controllers section.

    Right Click on the Conexant Smart Audio HD item and choose Uninstall.

    Still in Device Manager, click on Action>Scan for new Hardware.

    The Conexant Smart Audio item will re-appear.

    Right-Click on it and choose update driver.

    Navigate to d:\drivers\audio.

    When that's done, close Device Manager.

    Open File Manager and navigate to D:\drivers\Audio\DolbyGUI and install Dolby Home Theater.

    That should get rid of the error message.

    Hope this helps.

    Hi,

    when i expand the sound, video and game controllers section, i only get ' high definition audio devices' and Intel R audio display... And not Conexant Smart Audio HD...

    how come?

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-10-18T14:54:14+00:00

    OK.

    Open Device Manager. (Right-click on the Start button and choose Device Manager).

    Expand the Sound, Video and Games Controllers section.

    Right Click on the Conexant Smart Audio HD item and choose Uninstall.

    Still in Device Manager, click on Action>Scan for new Hardware.

    The Conexant Smart Audio item will re-appear.

    Right-Click on it and choose update driver.

    Navigate to d:\drivers\audio.

    When that's done, close Device Manager.

    Open File Manager and navigate to D:\drivers\Audio\DolbyGUI and install Dolby Home Theater.

    That should get rid of the error message.

    Hope this helps.

    Thanks Gordon! I had a very similar issue (as it appears many users have already) after upgrading to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8. My error window was titled "Dolby Advanced Audio" so I re-installed that on the last step instead of Dolby Home Theatre. Also, I needed to do a restart (as prompted by the system) after the Smart Audio HD uninstall step and then return to Device Manager and the Smart Audio item was again present.

    Personally, I think this is a flaw in the Windows 8.1 updating software that should be corrected by Microsoft since I've already seen many similar users posting about this same issue after only 1 day of the update being made available. However, maybe it's just one of many issue that will come up! I don't think a typical end user should need to poke around in the device manager to fix things after a standard upgrade.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-10-18T15:31:52+00:00

    Thank you Gordon Iam having the same problem !!

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